Artists and Fans: trying to submit music?

This is something I’ve kinda wanted to mention for awhile. Cause everyday I see all sorts of submission strategies with varying levels of persistence, creativity and salesmanship.

First off, let me start off by saying that not everything that is submitted makes it onto the site. In fact, very little of it does. Whether you’re a die-hard fan or someone representing a musician, it’s important to realize that fact before you even try to start submitting music to any music blog.

There are some blogs that really love to post submissions and brag about getting exclusive releases — even on garbage tracks — and the bloggers feel cool cause they get to talk to managers of up-and-coming artists which makes them feel important. FOC is not one of those blogs.

I do appreciate submissions and we have had a number of really popular tracks featured on the site that were sent in by fans and management. All of those tracks made it on the site because of the quality of the song, but an important first step was getting my attention in the right way so that I’d even bother to listen to it.

There are enough tracks released by major artists on any given day that by the time I get through those and start checking submissions, I’m probably running late for class. I just don’t have time to listen to everything. So, having said that, there are ways to make your particular submission stand out enough that it seems worth a listen and has more of a shot of making the site.

First of all, do your research. Posting in the comments or on the facebook page asking for our email address is pretty shoddy and probably won’t even elicit a response. I actually had someone email me last week, asking for my email address… I was highly perplexed and did not respond.

Secondly, make your submission personal. I try to respond to every email, message and tweet in the spirit of how the person reached out to me. If it seems like you genuinely wanted to send me something you thought I’d like, I’m much more interested in the track than if I see that I’m just another name on your mailing list.

For managers: if you think your job is too busy and you don’t have time to send out individual emails to all of the blogs you’re trying to canvas, then you probably shouldn’t be trying to market your music through us anyways. Whenever I get an email that lists an FOC email address among dozens of other bloggers, I almost always ignore it. One of the most common chirps you get as a blogger is that “oh you guys just rip all your stuff from {other blog}”. And considering I check well over 30 blogs a day — in addition to unique submissions — this is hardly true. If I see that you sent your track to me and the rest of the blogosphere, I hardly have incentive to post it. Call it selfish or territorial, but that’s just how life is as a blogger and if you want to use blogs for free publicity, you’ve gotta play by our rules.

You can try hiding the recipient list, but if I don’t see some sort of personalization in the email, I know what’s going on. This isn’t my first day. Even adding “Prof,” or “FOC,” to the title makes your submission look a lot more appealing.

Third, PLEASE don’t follow up aggressively. This might seem counter-intuitive since, in most cases you’d want to make sure that you didn’t get skipped over by double checking that I saw it. Don’t worry, I saw it. And you asking me “how come you didn’t post that new song/video/freestyle/sex-tape/whatever??” isn’t going to make me go back and check it out.

I don’t even care how politely you word your follow-up, it’s probably going to come off as pushy. Cause it is. It’s you feeling miffed that I didn’t consider your submission hot enough to post. Don’t take it personally, it just wasn’t that good. Move on with your life, cause I’ve moved on with mine. Following up like that is one of the quickest ways to make sure I automatically skip over your submitted material the next time I see your name.

And it’s also important to note that just because something you’ve submitted has made it on the site before, that doesn’t mean everything you submit in the future will as well. I’ll definitely give your tracks a listen if I trust you as someone who has good taste, but that doesn’t mean that everything you submit is golden. It can be really awkward with fans and artists, especially ones who I have formed personal connections with, who press me to post something that just doesn’t sound like something I’d want to put on FOC. I really don’t want to water down our reputation as a good music blog just to placate you, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t put me in that position. Just let it go.

And finally, don’t send in stuff that’s not good. Hopefully this seems obvious, but based on experience, it’s not. If you’re submitting something, I would hope that it’s because you’re a fan of FOC and like its style. The music video you made for your high school algebra class doesn’t exactly fit in with that style. Neither does the 20 minute long freestyle that your neighbor recorded in his garage. He might have hot skills that you want to show off, but if it isn’t something you’d expect to find on FOC, please don’t waste my time.

FOC can be a potential launching pad to help a new track really make it big. We’ve had a lot of our posts reposted by other sites, and so submissions are a really great opportunity to have input into what college kids are listening to around the world. But keep in mind that our slogan has been, and always will be, Bringing the freshest music to your campus, daily. That is what drives the decision behind every post we make, regardless of how well you market your submission.

Hopefully these suggestions will streamline the submission process and save everyone involved a lot of time and energy. If you’re not sure whether to submit a song or not, don’t. I only post songs that I think people will get excited over and if you’re not totally into it, chances are, I won’t be either.

Hit me up at theprofessor(at)gmail.com. Please don’t pollute the shoutbox. You can also share a track on FOC’s soundcloud account although I forget to check that a lot. Thanks to everyone out there who has had a hand in making FOC’s content just a little bit better by sharing their music with me.

+16 rating, 24 votes

Tweet

• Posted by The Professor
 ·
• Friday, Oct 22, 2010 @ 12:11 pm

• 7 Comments

1. A link to this
   Oct 22, 2010 at 3:12 pm

   Amen.

2. MicControl link to this
   Oct 23, 2010 at 12:17 pm

   Well said Prof

3. ANONYMOUS link to this
   Dec 16, 2010 at 3:15 am

   Read what you had to say above, but saw this kid on brobible. Gander this song…amen.
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60ORCqsit5w&feature=related

4. Travis link to this
   Feb 6, 2011 at 10:28 pm

   Ive been a fan of the site for a while now and love all the music, this is a track my friend ray through down, listen to it and tell me what you think, thanks.

5. Eric Greengartner link to this
   Aug 25, 2011 at 3:55 pm

   Check out this band and video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A7xSwk2ZBEo

6. JONE$2012 link to this
   Sep 11, 2011 at 12:34 am

   These kids are ridiculous! if this doesnt make a site like this then i suggest sticking your jones in a beartrap!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1CUGan77PU

7. Yung Alz link to this
   Feb 14, 2012 at 3:26 am

   I extremely appreciate it if you can check this guy (Yung Alz) out. He is a Upcoming rapper from Pittsburgh Has done tracks with Mac Miller and other artits!!! I guarentee u will not be disappointed